A scope is often used to view and examine the interior of a cavity. An endoscope is a medical device comprising a flexible tube, which is insertable into an internal body cavity through a body orifice to examine the body cavity and tissues for diagnosis. An endoscope may include a camera and a light source mounted on the distal end of its flexible tube to allow visualization of the internal environment of the body cavity. The tube of the endoscope has one or more longitudinal channels, through which an instrument can reach the body cavity to take samples of suspicious tissues or to perform other surgical procedures such as polypectomy.
To insert an endoscope into an internal body cavity, a physician advances the endoscope's flexible tube into the body cavity with the distal end of the flexible tube at the front. The physician may steer the flexible tube to follow the cavity's contour by controlling a bendable distal end portion of the flexible tube. After the endoscope is advanced to the end of the colon, the physician begins to retract the endoscope and visually scans the colon for abnormalities as the endoscope is retracted.
It is important for the physician to examine all areas of the colon where abnormalities may occur. Failure to do so may have grave consequences. However, it is difficult for the physician to simultaneously focus on examining the colon and keep track of the areas that have not been examined (or the areas of the colon that have been examined). Therefore, it is desirable to have a device or method that assists the physician in keeping track of the unexamined areas of the colon (or the examined areas).
Additionally, to ensure a careful examination of the colon, it is desirable to monitor the amount of time the physician spends examining an area of the colon, and to warn the physician if she spends insufficient time examining the area.